During the company's annual meeting on Wednesday, June 8, executive chairman Eric Schmidt told shareholders that Google parent Alphabet is working to develop a cheaper wireless technology that will allow providing ultra high-speed Internet.
According to 9News, on Tuesday, June 7, Schmidt said that he had a meeting with Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat and Alphabet CEO Larry Page to discuss the technology. He added that, due to the improvements in semiconductors, they have in consideration point to point wireless solutions that are now inexpensive.
Google Fiber is already experimenting with this type of point to point wireless technology in Kansas City. By the year's end they plan to have a test wireless network running. The point to point wireless network is a solution that replaces the need of laying fiber-optic cables.
The company is working on wireless technologies with the aim to increase the availability of high-speed Internet and to reduce the cost. Schmidt said that the technological breakthrough consists in the fact that it can be achieved a gigabit performance with the wireless solutions.
This would be similar with the one gigabit per second Internet speed delivered already by Google Fiber in a handful of cities through fiber-optic cables. However, the advantage is that the wireless solutions provide ultra high-speed internet without the high cost or disruptive construction.
Craig Barratt, Access CEO who oversees Fiber, told Recode earlier in April that wireless internet technologies allow reaching users and houses located in lower density settings, where the use of optic fibers would be too expensive. Using some new and cheaper wireless technologies in order to provide internet services helps accelerating company's deployments.
PulseHeadlines reports that Alphabet fixed wireless internet connection works by linking to physical places wirelessly either using radio frequencies or a laser bridge. The wireless connection replaces the need of using fiber cables or copper.
The point to point signal transmission travels from on antenna to another through the air. Several types of radio antennas support different bandwidth and sort out long distances and weather conditions.
